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Topic: Calcium Chloride - Substitutes? (Read 22218 times)

Friends, I enjoy using grocerystore or household products as substitutes for 'official' cheese/sausage making ingredients. For example: gipsum for making tofu, buttermilk/yoghurt for acidifying milk (and probably even sausage), rind of a storebought brie for making camembert, a piece of old sausage to acidify a new one. My question: is there something that can be used as a substitute for Cacl2, or alternatively, can Cacl2 be found elsewhere than the cheesemakersstore?

Thanks. It's not so much the 'chemical aspect' that I try to get around, and I don't mind going to the winemakers shop. Instead, for me it's rather the joy of trying to find some common product or procedure to do pretty much the same. Maybe there's none, than that's too bad, no harm done. If there is: excellent. I know for example that Cacl2 is used in sportsdrinks and to put on the streets to prevent slipperyness in the winter. Wouldn't it be cool if adding some Gatorate to your milk would work equally well to CaCl2? (it propably won't because its too diluted, but you get the idea)

Alum is a substitute for calcium chloride. Alum is used to crisp cucumbers during pickling process. Also, rock salt can be used in place of calcium chloride. Just googling "calcium chloride substitutes" will get you started. I too enjoy the challenge of making something with what's at hand.

Yes, you can substitute NaCl for CaCl2 in some applications - eg. NaCl will still work as a (weaker) dessicant, or as an ice salt, or a pickling salt. However, since the point of adding CaCl2 in cheesemaking is to add calcium ions (to aid coagulation), and NaCl doesn't have any of those, it isn't going to be a good substitute for this purpose.

The Pickle Crisp jar I have in my cupboard lists ingredients as "Calcium Chloride". It's formed into little round balls, but the ingredients do not list any binders or other adjuncts. Does anyone know if it is pure CaCl2?

How about water content? To make a 30% solution, 30 grams of CaCl2 and add distilled water to make 100 ml (being careful of heat as the reaction is exothermic), does it need to be anhydrous CaCl2?

I'm guessing that the cheesemaking suppliers who mix up 30% solutions don't bother to dessicate the granular CaCL2 before mixing it with water, so it probably doesn't matter since what they sell seems to work fine.

I have been busy reading this forum and Gianaclis book. Thanks to Pav for putting me on that book. It is proving very useful.

I hope this post isn't considered thread necromancy. It started quite awhile ago with the most recent addition 8 months ago. BUT, I think, I have something to add.

The OP asked for a common locally available substitute for CaCl2. Specially so they did not have to order the (relatively) expensive solutions from the sellers.

I'll bet many of us have Calcium Citrate pills in our cabinets. I sure do. This form of calcium is more similar to that found naturally in milk. I have also read that there are special bacteria for making diacetyl that eat citrate leaving us with a nice buttery flavor.

So, I ask. Has anyone tried using Calcium Citrate instead of Calcium Chloride when using these diacetyl producing bacteria for a hopped up buttery flavor in their cheeses?